This is the third post of a series of dental PPC strategies.  This week we are going to focus our attention on writing keywords that will attract the most relevant traffic and keep you safe from searches that have no relevance.

When developing a good keyword list, we recommend using Google’s keyword tool to start. You can find that tool in the Adwords dashboard under the tools tab or when you click on the “add keywords” button in the keywords tab.  Look for keywords that you know would be relevant to your site and do not be afraid to create a good sized keyword list. Here is an example of keywords found in a “Denture” adgroup:

• [dentures]
• “affordable dentures”
• “cost of dentures”
• [denture]
• “cheap dentures”
• “dentures cost”
• dentures ronan montana
• “partial dentures”
• “low cost dentures”
• “denture implants”
• “same day dentures”

The actual list is much bigger, some adgroups can have up to 40 or 50 keywords in a dental ppc account.

You will notice that some of the keywords are wrapped with “quotations”, [brackets], or nothing at all. This is called ‘keyword match type’ and is a great way to control how your keywords are used by Google’s search engine. The bracket match type is called exact match. The quotation match type is called phrase match. The keyword with nothing wrapped around it is called broad match.  We commonly start a campaign with exact and phrase match to limit search volume to the most relevant traffic and have only a few specific terms use broad match like: dentures ronan montana.

One last tip for your keyword list is to include negative words. Negative keywords are a great way for you to tell Google about specific keywords that are not relevant to your site. This can be used to block out people using related keywords that are not prospective new patients. Here are a few examples of negative keywords we use in a dental ppc account.

• -books
• -employment
• -resumes
• -education
• -staffing
• -seminar
• -career
• -picture
• -supplies

For someone just starting a dental ppc account, we recommend using the ‘see search terms’ report to find what irrelevant search terms are being used to find you. You can find that report by clicking on the keyword tab at the campaign level. Click on the drop down menu titled, ‘see search terms…’ and click all. This report will allow you to see what terms your ads are showing on. Use this report to determine if a keyword is relevant or not and quickly add it as a positive keyword or a negative one.

Please check in next week when we talk about how to use landing pages and dental offers in a dentist pay per click account to more effectively see a return on investment.

– Sterling Green